Supreme Court of New Hampshire
84 N.H. 114, 146 A. 641 (1929)
Justice Branch delivered opinion
Facts:
- Operation consisted of removal of scar tissue from palm of plain.'s right hand and grafting of skin taken from plain's chest
- scar tissue was result of severe burn caused by contact w/ electric wire (boy was approx. 9 yrs old at time of injury)
- Father and son went to office and doc mentioned 3-4 day hospital stay and returning to work with a "perfect hand"
- Def's statement "I will guarantee to make the hand a 100% perfect hand" before operation was consented to
- def repeatedly solicited family to allow him to complete surgery on boy's hand
- doc wanted to experiment on skin grafting
- Trial by jury and verdict for plaintiff
- Def. moved to set aside verdict because damages awarded were excessive
- Judge agreed and made conditioned ruling advising verdict would be set aside unless plain. agreed to accept $500
- Plain. refused and verdict set aside and plain. went home w/o $500 (excepted)
What damages should the plain. receive, if any?
Holding: Measure of plain.'s damage is the difference between the value to him of a perfect hand or a good hand and the value of his hand in its present condition, including any incidental consequences fairly within the contemplation of the parties when they made their contract.
Reasoning:
- Pain was part of contribution plain. was willing to make for def. to produce a good hand
- Def.'s rqsts for instruct. were loosely drawn and properly denied
- would have been misleading to instruct jury as def. rqstd
- Doc and plain. both understood doc was guaranteeing a perfect result from the operation
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